One of the main goals of this blog is to share examples of how technology can support teaching and learning in our classrooms. The following post was written by Candice, an 8th grade English teacher, and describes how her students used a wiki to collaboratively write screenplays. She crafted her reflections and graciously agreed to share her experience with a wider audience. Enjoy!

I’m keen on technology in the classroom. I just think that for the past few years that technology use has been mandated, I have been sooooooooo keen on using it I have been contriving, manipulating, forcing, eeking out ways to USE technology and thus be a “with it” innovative old dog learning new tricks. Yeah me! But this year, I decided to relax a bit. So many new mandates….so little time. And low and behold the eureka phenomena erupted.

(Ask the Guru!) A little voice peeps in the night. Ask Pat! What exactly would be the best way to use technology if the kids were to collaborate on a play? THE WIKI, I am told and then I am walked through the process and yes it does look as though for once technology would be a useful TOOL for this particular project.

So the BIG difference? I had been creating projects around the use of technology rather than vice versa. We have a project, how can technology help my students? How can technology help me? It was so simple really. So obvious I should have tripped over the idea long ago. However, never knock a piece of chocolate cake set right in front of you. No matter when it happens, I say dig in!

There was prep work. Planning a bit. A WIKI lesson for the students by Pat and a Wiki lesson for the teacher, also by Pat. Prep for writing a play by me…discussions on plot development, setting, lighting, visiting a stage, creating multiple characters and putting characters in various situations to see how the would behave…all things I would normally do when prepping students for a writing assignment. But when the actual writing began, I had to take a back seat and this was entirely new for me.

Signing up for seventeen computers for five days in a row is no easy feat and this almost undid me. However, in rode Matt on his white charging steed and at his suggestion the kids worked on the flat screens in the library while standing and they used one computer per group. They collaborated, whined, fought and haggled. But they were FOCUSED on that flat screen and the dialogue they were creating. I, on the other hand, was pretty much superfluous. Oh I answered little questions, I circulated, I FACILITATED. But when a fellow teacher saw me in the library for the fourth day in a row and asked, “Don’t you teach anymore?” it really struck a sore spot. I mean, no technically I wasn’t teaching, or was I? After each class, I went on the WIKI and made comments on the students work for the day. And before each class, the students would read my comments and comment on them. I overheard them so I know this to be true. “She says if we want to indicate Mary has a beautiful nose we shouldn’t use the word “bulbous”…it has a negative connotation and that we should look it up.” And low and behold they were looking it up and laughing and decided “aquiline” would be much better….as a matter of fact, these kids were RACING into the library to boot up so they could read what I had said about their work the day before. But still, the hardest part for me was staying out of their way.

I gave the students an evaluation sheet after the project was over. I wanted to know if they thought there might be a better way to do this project. Were they certain they didn’t want me working with them one on one or giving little mini-lessons before they began each day? Yep, they were sure. All but a very few really liked it and thought it worked well. They were happy they could do group work from home. They were happy I could check and see who exactly contributed and who DIDN’T. And for the first time I felt really good about the way we used computers. As a TOOL to enhance what we already do.

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Posted: 02|23|08 at 6:42 pm. Filed under: In the Classroom.
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